Monday, September 21, 2015

There's a lot for me not to care about this morning: the unmentionable sporting event. Whatever is on Scout. But the best thing not to care about is tax-cheat Michael Ashcroft's allegation that David Cameron fucked a dead pig as part of an initiation rite at Oxford. Once we've all stopped laughing and gotten the obvious jokes out of our systems, it doesn't appear to have been illegal (current UK law prohibits sex with a live animal or dead person; the one in force at the time merely bans "buggery" with an animal, which I expect had to be live), and I don't think it ought to be. There's no "dignity of human remains" / hurt feelings of relatives, let alone an animal welfare issue. What a man does with a ham in the privacy of his own home (or Oxford society HQ) is really no business of mine. To amend the usual line, everyone involved was a consenting adult or dead, so I don't care.

There are two interesting things about it however. Firstly, there are apparently photos. Think about that for a moment: you have an exclusive Oxford society which attracts the sort of people who might one day go on to become Prime Minister (or Supreme Court judges, or heads of MI6), gets them to engage in humiliating initiation rituals which would destroy their reputation if ever released, and takes photos. If that isn't a setup for future blackmail I don't know what is. Secondly, there's the reason we have this story: because David Cameron didn't give Ashcroft a "significant job" after winning power. And in retaliation, Ashcroft is going to destroy him. Which tells us rather a lot about the British establishment, and the toxic toffs who comprise it.